LITTLE ROCK — Attorneys representing suspended Circuit Judge L.T. Simes of Marianna filed a motion Friday in federal court in Little Rock to block a disciplinary hearing against Simes set for Wednesday.
The Arkansas Judicial Discipline and DisabilityCommission is reviewing allegations that Simes improperly pressured the Helena-West Helena mayor to reinstate a fired policechief and ordered a newspaper reporter not to write a story.
The commission can choose to dismiss the complaints against Simes, reprimand him or recommend to the Arkansas Supreme Court that he be removed from the bench.
David Stewart, executive director of the commission,said Friday that he plans to go ahead with the hearing “until we’re told otherwise.”
Simes’ attorneys also filed a civil-rights action against the commission and its members, claiming that it made “false, defamatory” claims and violated his 14th Amendment rights.
In response, Stewart said Simes’ attempts to make the hearing a civil-rights issue “seems a little ludicrous to me.”
“It’s, to me, a repeat of some of the pleadings he made before the commission, all of which the commission denies,” Stewart said.
In Friday’s filings, Simes states that the disciplinary hearing “is a bad faith proceeding brought to harass, to punish, and to retaliate against [Simes]” to prevent his re-election.
The civil-rights action also accuses the commission of being biased and not following its own rules, including being objective, preserving evidence and having “timely dispositions of complaints.”
Simes’ attorney, Terrence Cain of Little Rock, declined to comment when contacted Friday. George Hairston, a New York attorney also listed as representing Simes, did not return phone calls for comment Friday.
In November, Simes was suspended without pay by the state Supreme Court, which found that he violated judicial rules in an unrelated case by practicing law while serving as a judge and handling the affairs of an estate, including accepting rental payments and trying to collect estate and attorney fees.
However, Simes was not barred from seeking re-election and ran unopposed for the seat in May during the nonpartisan judicial election. He is set to resume the position in January when his suspension ends.
The case was initially assigned Friday to U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/24/2010